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Monday, September 24, 2012

School Memories - Fall Back Into Blogging

Five important things I remember about my 9th grade Geometry teacher:

Ms Geometry was the volleyball coach.

She was more than a little obsessed with origami. Each week we had a special origami project assigned to us that took hours to complete, because she was convinced that the secret of geometry was origami. I still get a little twitchy when I have to fold paper.

There were two kids who fell asleep in her class when I was present. She wrote on both kids with permanent marker. The first kid was the recipient of "DORK" on his cheek, and the second kid was emblazoned with "I AM A LOSER" on his forehead.

She had the largest collection of overhead projector markers I have ever seen. Each day she would carefully choose ten markers out of her drawer, and line them up on the table next to the projector.

One cold day in January I entered Ms Geometry's class, and sat in my usual seat in the back corner. Ms Geometry walked in wearing her olive green overalls and a white, long-sleeved shirt. She joked with a couple of volleyball players sitting in the front row while she lined up her overhead projector markers. After collecting all of our origami lotus flowers and placing them in a large cardboard box, she began the lesson.

Ten minutes into explaining some new concept (probably how measuring a triangle relates to paper cranes, and how best to construct a paper box in which your paper crane can live), she suddenly picked up all of her overhead projector markers, held them up in front of her face, and stared at them.

She stared at the markers for about a minute, eyes huge.
Then she started to scream.

She pulled the caps off the markers, one by one, throwing them towards the class, and scribbled on the projector sheet with the fistful of markers, yelling, "No. No. No. No. NO!"

Ms Geometry banged on her desk with her fists, and then opened up her drawers to pull out more markers. She ran back and forth across the room, yelling and throwing the markers.

We all sat in our desks, shocked.
No one said a word.
No one moved.
(except to dodge flying markers)

When she had exhausted her supply of markers, she moved onto pencils, handfuls of paper clips, and books - throwing everything she touched, until her desk was clear. Yelling things like, "I can't take it anymore. They are all so stupid." and a lot of nonsense words. She tried to pick up her desk to throw it, but only succeeded in lifting it a few inches off of the floor.

Ms Geometry then punched the wall, and ran out of the room. We could hear her screams echoing off the hallway walls for a few seconds, and then she was gone.

The entire class stayed seated, silent, until the bell rang.

The next day, I walked into Geometry fully expecting to see a substitute. Instead I found Ms Geometry sitting behind her desk, which was piled high with origami creations.

No one ever mentioned her freak out in class, but for the rest of the year everyone flinched a little each time she pulled markers out of the drawer.

Did this happen in your Geometry class?Are you a talented origami artist?
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I can't get over the fact that she got away with a) drawing on students and b) the freakout. What the??

I remember a Geography teacher in my high school who also taught Choir. She was a little unbalanced after her husband left her (that's what I heard!), and sometimes, she would sit in her car, stare at the steering wheel and talk to it. And yes, she carried on teaching too.

It would be interesting to investigate what ever happen, i'd send the school a copy of this story...lol that is about the strangest story I ever heard. My inner beings are asking what, where and why? hugs girl

And to think that for some survivors this was so much like home life it would not have been out of the question.

I actually started wondering about her after writing this last night and looked up the school online. It doesn't appear that she is there anymore, so she must have retired (or been fired? but that seems unlikely with her having tenure).

It's okay!! In the moment it was pretty terrifying, but I have to honestly say I crack up a little when I think about it looking back too (even though I probably shouldn't - the curse of having a slightly dark sense of humor I suppose).

It was just so very strange, and unlike anything else I ever experienced in a classroom.

I blame the Pythagorean theorem, it must be what's driving high school geometry teachers over the edge. Weirdly enough my sophomore year geometry teacher was just back from a year off after a nervous breakdown.

Um, I had a crazy teacher, but the best thing she ever did was fall over backwards in her chair, and laid there with her skirt over her head laughing hysterically for about 5 minutes... no crazy markers. Returning a visit from onepartjoyonepartcircus!

Kids don't need unstable teachers. Do you even remember how to bisect an angle anymore? I had an impressive Algebra teacher who could write cursive backwards. Very cool. He would have chalk in both hands and write his name on the board going in two directions. It looked like a mirror.

One teacher stands out—He always wrote across the chalkboard and kept it hidden with his large body while he wrote (taunting us to wonder what was there). Then someone would yell out his favorite word: "MOVE!" —and he'd begin dancing! I don't even remember the subject, but his character made it fun.

Holy Cow! Are you SERIOUS? I wouldn't have been able to go back to school ... never mind Geometry class! That's creepy! And if I ever lose all this weight and manage to get into my goal overalls (I've always had this insane desire to wear overalls) I won't wear them in your presence!

I literally laughed out loud at your story, trying to imagine myself in your shoes. For the life of me, I can't imagine a teacher freaking out. The closest I've come to that is a professor getting pretty nasty with a class for not doing their reading--she singled out one girl and told her she was disappointed, particularly in her, for not having done the assignment.

My geometry teacher had had a breakdown/heart attack the year before. So he never got out of his seat or raised his voice or did much of anything. I am still terrible at geometry. But your teacher wins.